Biomechanical impact of tooth root morphology to inform dental implant design

Using finite element analysis (FEA), this study aims to investigate the impact of different tooth root morphologies and implant designs, including a standard implant and a custom root-analogue implant on stress and strain distribution across the mandible.

Six models were created by varying the root morphology of one tooth (the mandibular first molar) under identical loading scenarios: an original molar root, an incisor root, a canine root, a taurodont root, a standard implant, and a custom root-analogue implant replicating the original root morphology.

Models with the original molar and custom implant exhibited similar stress and strain distributions over the mandible and had higher principal strains (tensile and compressive) compared to the single-rooted and standard implant models. Specifically, the maximum tensile and compressive strain values in the mandible of the custom implant model reach 94.89 % and 99.15 % of those in the original tooth root model. In contrast, the other models show less than 55.68 % similarity.

Custom root-analogue implants, which mimic natural root morphology, demonstrated more favourable stress distribution patterns, similar to those of the natural molar, compared to single-root implants. Our findings suggest that multi-rooted teeth are biomechanically optimized for dissipating masticatory loads, and standard single-root implants may not adequately replicate these properties, leading to poor load distribution and increased failure risk in posterior locations. Further research is needed to refine custom root-analogue implant designs and optimize their clinical application to better match the natural biomechanical environment of the maxilla and mandible.